On the Impacts of Power Outages during Hurricane Sandy - A Resilience-Based Analysis

The dependence on continuous availability of power for day-to-day functioning and sustenance of life is more critical today than ever before. A prolonged loss of power is no longer just an inconvenience, but brings normal life to a standstill. When Hurricane Sandy hit the U.S East Coast in October 2012, many lost their homes and properties due to the flooding and severe winds. However, a significant impact was the power outages to over 8 million customers across 21 states, for days and even weeks. This paper takes a systems view of these power outages from supply and demand sides, from a quantitative resilience perspective. The focus of this study is on the resilience action that enables restoration of the disrupted system. Generic resilience framework and metrics are used as the basis for the resilience analysis; the observations, lessons learnt, and recommendations based on this analysis are expected to improve recovery from large-scale power outages resulting from any disruptive event in future.